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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Kyle On Daytona Crash: "This Is Going To Hurt"

“Oh,
no. It’s not slowing down. It’s not slowing down. This is going to hurt.”

Those
were the thoughts of NASCAR driver Kyle Busch as he hurtled toward a 90-mph,
head-on crash into an unprotected concrete wall at Daytona International
Speedway on Saturday, February 21. The resulting impact – measured at 90 Gs by
a “black box” telemetry recorder in his Toyota Camry race car – left the Las
Vegas native with a compound fracture of his right leg and a broken left foot;
injuries that have kept him on the sidelines ever since.

Busch
met with reporters today for the first time since Daytona, providing previously
unknown details of the crash.

“I
left the racing surface at 176 miles an hour,” revealed Busch. “The impact (with
the wall) was 90 miles per hour and it was 90 Gs. Obviously, it was a huge
hit.”

The
Joe Gibbs Racing driver recalled that he “curled up” prior to impact, folding
his arms across his chest for protection. His left foot remained on the brake
pedal, however, while his right foot remained in mid-air. Busch said the impact
knocked all the air from his body, and despite using a full containment seat
and a HANS device, both his helmet and chest impacted the steering wheel. It
also pushed the engine and transmission back into the foot box of his race car,
severely injuring his legs.

"I knew instantly that my right leg broke," he recalled.
"I could feel it. It was just a sharp pain.

“I was thinking to myself, 'Man, I'm done,'" said Busch
of the moments immediately after the crash. "There's no way I'm going to be
able to come back from this.”

"I curled up..."

After initially deciding to remain in his demolished
racer and wait for aid from the track medical crew, Busch was forced to
evacuate the cockpit when flames began to shoot from the car’s engine compartment.
He knew his shattered right leg could not support him, and when he attempted to
push off on his left leg, the pain of his broken foot forced him to change
plans yet again.

He eventually discovered that he could bear enough weight
on his left heel to struggle out of the seat and onto the door of his Monster
Energy Toyota. Safety workers came quickly to his aid, and since then, his life
has been dominated by healing and rehabilitation.

“I'm alive today because the restraints worked, the seat
worked and the HANS device worked. I can’t say enough
about NASCAR’s innovations. From the knees up, (there was) no problem.
Not a mark on me. Not a bruise, not a headache, not a
neck ache, nothing.”

He said the last few
weeks have been difficult emotionally.

“We had a very
difficult time in the beginning," said Busch, whose wife Samantha, in the
final trimester of pregnancy with their first child, shed tears at night,
thinking of what might have been. Busch admitted that he has struggled to
pacify his competitive nature.

In his words, "It stinks to be on the sidelines.”

Busch stressed that there is no timeline for his return to
racing, and while he pledged to listen to his doctors and not rush the healing
process, he is clearly anxious to return.

"They say
my recovery is going faster than expected," he revealed. “It’s week to week, (depending on) what I can show (the doctors),
what I can do and what my physical therapist says I’m capable of. As long as my
strength continues to improve and I can continue to show the doctors and the
NASCAR folks that I’m able to do the things necessary to get back in the race
car, that time will be determined as I get better.”

1 comment:

I've been a NASCAR fan since 1959. Kyle's interview and subsequent explanation of the accident was something i'd never seen before from a driver. It was fascinating to hear him explain what went through his mind and the efforts he made to lessen the effects of impact. His recollection of what took place in a mere second or two was amazing.

I wish him well and hope to see him back in the seat sooner rather than later. His honesty and forthrightness was appreciated and admired.